THUNDER BAY -- If Free Comic Book Day was to grow any more successful, Rob Quinn would need a bigger store.
Hundreds of geek culture fanatics flocked to Hill City Comics and other comic book stores on Saturday to mingle among those who dabble in the fantasy world between Middle Earth and outer space.
“We’ve maximized out what we can move through here in a day. If it got any bigger, I really don’t have the space to accommodate any more people,” Quinn said.
Hill City has been holding Free Comic Book Day for 15 years but over the last three years, the one-day event has exploded to bring over 1,500 people through the store annually. Quinn credits the culture’s explosive popularity to Hollywood’s recent love affair with superhero films.
“They always plan to do a major movie release on the week of Free Comic so everybody’s in the mood and that really helps. Half the people here went to see Captain America last night.”
Arin Bowes was among a few who dressed up to welcome those seeking free comic books as potential new converts to a ballooning – and increasingly social -- culture.
“It’s really awesome to see people coming out of their shells, getting together and realizing there’s a lot of people who like to do this and you can do it together in an interactive way. You don’t have to stay in your mom’s basement like it used to be.”
The social effort celebrated a victory last summer when geek cliques came together to hold ThunderCon, an umbrella festival for comic fans, sci-fi nerds, video gamers, live action role players, cosplay enthusiasts, tabletop gamers, and trading card players.
Andrew Mayo-White stood outside Hill City through the afternoon handing out flyers for this year’s ThunderCon, which will be held on the Oct. 22 weekend.
“There’s a lot of cliques within Thunder Bay and there’s a whole community of geek people but they’re very separate from each other so we’re trying to create a meeting ground where everyone can come together and we can grow this community as one.”
Although there’s more for geeks to do together, Mayo-White sees solitary habits as central to geekdom's mainstream appeal. He pointed to the way Netflix has changed television viewing habits as having moved mass culture toward the subculture.
“Binge-watching used to be the realm of the geek. Staying up until three in the morning watching a TV show was unheard of for the mainstream people. Now it’s commonplace.”
Netflix binging is how 14-year-old Noah Robinson discovered The Punisher, a Vietnam War veteran turned ultra-violent vigilante who takes on drug-dealing organized crime families in a firefight to the death.
The Punisher was featured in the Daredevil Netflix serial and Robinson is excited over last month’s announcement his favourite hero is getting a spinoff show of his own.
“He’s not like, ‘I’m going to put you in jail.’ He punishes them. He shoots them. It gets rid of the evil,” Robinson said.
“I think how he got the symbol in the prison fight was pretty cool but I do like the Vietnam story with the monkey. That was one of my favourites.”
